DEARBORN (WXYZ) — Mother’s Day is coming up and one working mom from Dearborn is showing us you can have it all BUT it’s a balancing act.
Najat Machiche is a wife, working mom of eight kids and is now graduating with an engineering degree from Wayne State University.
“I go to work, I drop off the kids at school, I come from work, I go exercising, I take my kids to do activities, I cook for my kids,” she said describing a typical day
On top of all that, Najat has been going to Wayne State University to achieve her life-long dream of getting an electrical engineering degree.
“It’s my second chance here," she said.
Najat says her dad wanted her to come to America for a PhD in Physics in 1999.
She met her husband and started a family instead.
Najat has eight kids ranging from 17 down to 8 years old.
She’s a working mom who decided to go back to school five years ago when her father came to visit from Morocco, where her entire family still live.
“When my dad came he told me, ‘where is your degree,’” Najat said.
That’s when she made the decision to go to school.
“Everybody was skeptical about it,” she said.
Najat was offered a scholarship but had to turn it down because she couldn’t attend Wayne State full time. Like most students, she leaned on student loans.
Adding to her challenges, English is her third language.
Her professors are amazed at her, including Mohammed Ismail.
“Hard work, she’s really creative,” Ismail explained. “The sky is the limit as for what she can do.”
The 43-year-old is graduating this week, showing her six daughters and two sons that anything is possible.
“They are very proud of their mom,” Najat said. “It’s my ultimate dream, for my kids, for myself and for my dad.”
She has this advice for everyone: “Do it. Any woman can do it. Any girl can do it. If I did it with eight kids, you can do it.”
Najat will go back to Wayne State University this Fall to get her master's degree.
